Mail concerns voiced back in June ignored

Concerns about undelivered mail in parts of Queenstown were
voiced by the Queenstown Lakes District Council to New
Zealand Post five months ago but were ignored, it was
revealed yesterday.

At a meeting called by the state-owned enterprise yesterday,
councillors and council representatives voiced displeasure
with postal services to three areas, Fernhill, Arrowtown and
Lake Hayes Estate, after tens of thousands of undelivered
items of mail were discovered last week.

The company requested the meeting on Friday to offer an
apology and assure customers of the Wakatipu it would do its
best to rectify delivery problems.

Queenstown police said they discovered up to 20,000 pieces of
undelivered mail in a storage unit in Arrowtown and in the
Frankton home of a contracted postal delivery woman.

Alleged mail thefts began in September last year. The woman
is to appear at the Queenstown District Court on December 3.

Yesterday it was revealed that in June, the council had
notified NZ Post that ratepayers in the Fernhill area had not
been receiving or paying their rates, and indicating a
problem with mail delivery.

QLDC communications manager Meaghan Miller said the response
from NZ Post was poor.

"Either we didn't get a response when we advised there was
missing mail, or, two, we were told it was our problem and
they asked us to investigate it."

NZ Post national heartland manager Dean Horsup agreed the
company's response had been too slow and customers had been
let down.

Mr Horsup said the information taken from the call centre
would have been given to "operations people" who had not
reacted fast enough, or at all.

Having a more localised call centre was not practical for the
company, he said.